Cannabis and Creativity

An interesting study found in Psychology Today reported research regarding using marijuana as a way to stimulate creativity and if it is possible for a controlled process. Using drugs to unlock creative potential and understanding the complexity of the creative process is an aspect of medical marijuana that is slowly gaining legitimacy in the legalization process. However, the idea that medical marijuana can be prescribed from cancer patients to the possibility of parents giving their children an extra creative boost before an audition is somewhat worrisome. It could be a ‘symptom’ that would undermine the legitimacy of the genuine uses for marijuana. Research on cannabis’ effects upon creativity has only recently begun to surface. Cannabis produces symptoms that are similar to typical divergent thinking primarily associated with creative thinking and breaking free from ordinary thought processes and evaluations; leading towards unique ideas and conclusions.

In the study, there were two different groups of participants who were tested in two separate conditions: non-intoxicated and intoxicated. Their creativity levels were then measured by three tasks: verbal fluency, category fluency, and the Mednick’s Remote Associates Tests (one word that links three given words; 4 minutes given for each of the 16 word triads on the test). The findings discovered that, “while both trait creative groups scored higher on state schizotypy as assessed by a self-report questionnaire on the intoxicated day, there were no significant differences between the two groups on the Remote Associates Test, thus ruling out the possibility that increased schizotypy played any role. However, verbal fluency scores for the low trait creativity group increased to the level of the high trait creative group on the intoxicated day, but the latter group’s scores did not differ on the two days. Also, the category fluency scores did not differ on the two days, but the high trait group performed better than the low trait group on both days” (Kumar).

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